Danley And Lee Come Out Of Nowhere In Debuts

Sports - All-county cross country teams

Cassie Lee, The Girls Runner Of The Year, Took Up Running To Help Her Stay In Shape For Basketball.

December 8, 1996|By Frank Carroll of The Sentinel Staff

ST. CLOUD — For a diehard basketball aficionado, Cassie Lee scores well as a standout runner.

A St. Cloud High School freshman and the Osceola Sentinel's girls runner of the year, Lee had a stunning Orange Belt Conference debut.

Lee, 14, set the pace for a youth-laden roster but saved her best for the conference meet, where victory ended Osceola's two-year championship reign and led St. Cloud to its first girls title since 1993. It was the Bulldogs' seventh in the past decade.

''This is my first year in cross country,'' said Lee, who ran as a conditioning tool for basketball.

''Cassie's competitive. She has one speed, and that one is all-out,'' St. Cloud coach Tim McMullen said. ''That's what makes her a good athlete, no matter what the sport. She doesn't get rattled and always gives her best.''

St. Cloud featured three freshmen, two sophomores and a senior among the first eight to cross the finish line.

''Cassie surprised me, too, but she was steady,'' McMullen said. ''She set a strong pace and kept going at that pace.''

Until asked by McMullen to give cross country a try, Lee had no intention of diverting focus away from basketball.

''Someday, I'd like to play basketball professionally,'' said Lee, a point guard with coach Darren Miller's Bulldogs.

McMullen convinced Lee that running would be beneficial to basketball.

He encourages students to run and works to attract them by recruiting the hallways.

''Running is a lifetime activity, something they can continue to do the rest of their lives,'' he said. ''Unlike other sports that have restrictions on how many athletes participate, there's no limit to how many cross-country runners (there can be) in a race.''

First encouraged by her mother, Lee competed in a couple of 5-kilometer events as a 9 year old, but nothing else until this year.

''I didn't like running and stopped,'' she said. ''It hurts. I start feeling pain toward the end of the first mile but try to block it out.''

Five years later, Lee still isn't a big fan but ran ''just for the fun of it. Two miles isn't that difficult.''

McMullen wasn't the only person surprised by what Lee accomplished.

''I guess I was surprised, especially winning conference,'' Lee said.

Lee, who doesn't claim to have a lot of endurance or blazing speed, relied on strength to keep her in contention. During the conference race, ''I got out in front and kept running,'' she said.